The Academic Staff Association (ASA) of Njala University has on Wednesday September 2, 2020, suspended a strike action which they had been pursuing since August 21. This came following a plenary meeting at Towama, Bo Campus.
The Association informed the public that they will back down from their former line of action till the end of the Second Semester in December 2020, to give the Administration ample time to address their grievances.
ASA said in a statement that, they will restart a strike action after a day’s notice at the beginning of next academic year, if the University authorities fail to address their demands.
The Academic Staff Association downed their tools a week ago amidst concerns around payment of annual leave allowances, benefits to retirees and deceased colleagues, failure to honor emoluments due to newly promoted staff and failure to review the conditions of services stalled for a number of years, and general working conditions were some of the reasons advanced by the Association for the industrial strike action.
The release further states that they will only resume normal services to the University if they have audience with President Bio.
The acting Vice Chancellor and Principal, Professor Osman Sankoh succeeded in deferring the strike action planned for Monday August 24,2020, which coincidentally, was the day for commencement of the Final year Comprehensive Examinations, with a view to get ASA meet the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education to start the necessary dialogue.
On Friday August 28, 2020, ASA met with officials of the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education alongside the University Administration in Freetown and a number of resolutions were agreed upon including the possibility of subsuming the concerns of ASA into a bail out for the attention of the Government of Sierra Leone.
The Acting Vice Chancellor and Principal, the Deputy Vice Chancellors for Njala Bo Campuses and his entire Administration were pleased with the suspension of the strike action because it will pave the way for the final year examinations and other university functions.
By Stephen V. Lansana
07/09/2020 ISSUE NO: 7903